Chapter Fourteen: The Itsy Bitsy Spider
Hogwarts Herald (Year of 1992, March Edition)
A REPORTER'S SUSPICIONS ON THE RECENT PETRIFICATIONS
As all Hogwarts students have heard, there have been many recent Petrified casualties, who have been put in their current state by an unidentified Dark wizard. These students are Colin Creevey of Gryffindor and Mandy Brocklehurst and the Grey Lady, a Ravenclaw student and ghost respectively. However, there have been no other casualties since before Christmas. This has changed. Two more students have been Petrified, and they are Steve Levi and Kristen Malkin, this year's Head Boy and Girl. Levi is a resident of Hufflepuff House, while Malkin is a Gryffindor. The two Petrified students were caught in a—er—compromising position. But on a more serious note, isn't it odd that none of Slytherin have been victims?
Reporter: Leander Walker, Gryffindor
Ginny scowled and threw down the trashy newspaper that jokingly called itself the Hogwarts Herald, nearly making it land in Daphne Greengrass's strawberries and pancakes. The blonde second year glared at her before moving her plate slightly farther away from where Harry, Blaise, Theo, and Ginny were sitting.
Harry picked up the abandoned newspaper and skimmed through it before commenting, "A compromising position, hmm?"
"Stop misinterpreting things, Harry."
"All I did was repeat what the article said, Ginny."
"But that doesn't mean that's what it meant."
"Are you sure?" Theo asked hesitantly.
"Yes," hissed Ginny angrily.
Theo held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Okay . . . don't get too frisky, kitten."
"What did you just call me?"
"It's better than sugar dumplin-wumplin, isn't it?" Theo said with a smirk.
Ginny's mouth dropped open in horror. "You wouldn't dare. . . ."
"Oh, I would, sugar dumplin-wumplin."
Ginny bared her teeth in a feral growl and jumped across the table to push Theo off the bench and tackle him to the ground.
"Get this thing off me!"
"Blaise, come help me kill him!"
"Don't even think about it, Blaise! Harry, come get this mad woman off me!"
Harry had been watching the growing scene without abandon, and then had spaced out when an odd mental image of Ginny in white robes and Theo in black calling each other pet names. It was all very . . . disturbing. . . . But at Theo's last words, he looked around to where Blaise had been sitting beside him to find that she had disappeared.
oOoOo
"Hello, class!" Lockhart called cheerfully to the Slytherin-Hufflepuff second-years as the bell rang signaling the start of class.
"Yo ho and the Land before Time," Harry muttered before yawning and plopping his head on his desk as Lockhart began chattering about the vampire he had "supposedly" staked through the heart during one of his "adventures."
"Do you really think yo ho and the Land before Time goes together, Potter?"
Harry slowly picked his head up and turned to face Theo, his eyes as wide as Galleons. "Yes."
"Seriously?"
"Just shut up, please, and listen to Lockhart like you always do."
"And the Slytherin snake hisses at his most poor follower."
"Blaise, will you tell him to—"
At that point Harry turned to face Blaise, but then realized she wasn't there to face.
"Where'd she go?" Theo asked, peering around Harry's head to see the empty seat.
Harry opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Blaise hadn't skipped a Lockhart Lesson since she realized they could make fun of him and the mistakes in his books together.
Something wasn't right.
oOoOo
It was during that afternoon's Transfiguration lesson that Harry was about ready to have a nervous breakdown. Blaise hadn't been present since breakfast in any of their classes, and he was nearly nauseated with the thought of what could be wrong with her.
Although she hadn't been to any of her classes, he had seen her in the halls a few times, wandering around aimlessly. But as soon as her eyes found him in the mass of students, and he found her, she would just seem to . . . disappear.
The bell rang and Harry jumped from his seat—the first one out of the door—before he took off running. He planned to search every corridor in the castle if he had to, but he needed to find Blaise. Something was wrong with her, he just knew it!
There wasn't a sign of her in the Transfiguration corridor, but he knew he'd find her when he turned the corner, and he did.
But the sight of her made him stop in his tracks.
Her hair was unkempt, and she had dark half-moons under her eyes. But it was her eyes that stopped him. Instead of the normal sapphire-blue they were, her pupils had completely dilated, turning her irises black. When she saw him, a hint of red swirled around where he thought her normal pupil may be, before she turned and began sprinting in the opposite direction.
"Blaise!"
She didn't slow down and simply turned into another corridor before he forgot his shock and followed her. She was at the end of a set of steps and he was at the top when he called out to her again.
"Blaise! Stop!"
He peddled down the steps, nearly tripping three times in his haste and barely avoiding a trick step.
Harry stopped as he turned into the third-floor corridor.
. . . Blaise was slowing down.
Why the bloody hell was she slowing down now?
"Blaise . . . ?"
She turned to face him, eyes onyx black, and then began walking away from him again. He followed her, and Blaise turned her head back, saw him, and began sprinting away.
"Blaise Cyrilla Zabini!" he called out before going, yet again, into lets-chase-Blaise mode.
They went down another set of stairs, and Blaise turned a few corridors before going down another set.
And that was when he finally realized it.
She was trying to lose him.
They were nearly at the doors to outside the castle when he caught up with her, tugging her shirt and pulling her into his arms, guaranteeing that she wouldn't be able to get away. Blaise snarled at him and struggled helplessly, but soon seemed to realize he wasn't letting go and stilled in his grasp.
Harry grasped what she was trying to do and didn't loosen his grip in the slightest. Blaise growled at him and resumed her struggling, banging her arms and trying to bite any bit of him in reach.
"Blaise, what the—?"
He was cut off when Blaise's teeth made contact with his wrist and succeeded in tearing the skin.
"Ah!" he exclaimed, taking his wrist out of her mouth to survey the damage. "That hurt!"
When his only response was a snarl, he glared at the girl struggling in his arms before reaching into his arms to get his wand.
"That's it, you're going to the hospital wing, like it or not. Petrificus Totalus!"
Blaise stilled in his arms and he began the long process of dragging her to the third floor to the hospital wing. If glares could murder, Harry would have been a very bloody mess, and that did nothing to help his terror for his friend. Why was she acting like this, like some wild animal? They had just arrived at the hospital wing when Madam Pomfrey came bustling out.
"Mr. Potter, what are you doing here? Miss Zabini—what's wrong?"
Harry sighed before answering, loosening his grip on his frozen friend's wrist. "Don't worry, Madam Pomfrey, she's not Petrified; I've got her under the Full-Body Bind. There's something . . . something's not right."
"What happened, Mr. Potter?" the nurse asked as she bustled around preparing a bed for Blaise and easing the Binded girl onto it.
"I don't know. She skipped all of today's classes, and I only just saw her at breakfast. I saw her again at the end of our last class, and as soon as she saw me she started running in the opposite direction. When I finally caught up with her she was acting like some wild animal."
"That is very odd, Mr. Potter," said Madam Pomfrey as she gave him a sharp look. "I'll have to keep her overnight for observation, I'm afraid." The nurse added restraints to the bed and began easing Blaise's limbs into them before securing the bonds tightly.
"Is that really necessary?"
"If she is acting as you described, then yes. Finite Incantatem!"
Immediately Blaise began struggling at the restraints, adding a snarl every now and then as she glared at Harry and Madam Pomfrey. The Healer herself seemed to be in shock, and her lips had thinned dramatically.
"I didn't think it was really that bad. . . ." she whispered in shock before pulling herself together. "I'll have to inform the headmaster, and you, Mr. Potter, need to go to dinner."
"What? But—!"
"No buts, Mr. Potter. Out."
Harry glared at the Healer but turned and stomped out of the infirmary to go to dinner. He huffed and puffed and tried (and nearly succeeded) in blowing Hogwarts down as he sat down next to Theo and began piling steak and kidney pie onto his plate.
"Had a rough day?"
"You could say that."
Theo took another bite of his own steak and kidney pie before replying. "So, did you find out what happened to Blaise?"
"In a manner of speaking."
The rest of the meal was finished in silence, and as soon as Theo scraped the remains of his dinner from his plate Harry stood and began leading him out of the Hall.
"What is it, Harry?"
"We need to talk."
Harry waited until they were near the dungeons before pulling Theo into a room that looked like it hadn't seen a life-form in centuries and wasted no time in explaining how he had found Blaise, immobilized her, and taken her to the infirmary.
Theo's face was one of confusion as he frowned. "That sounds quite serious."
"No, you think?" Harry asked sardonically.
"Actually . . ." Theo trailed off with a contemplative look. "It can't be that. . . ."
"What?"
"It sounds like she's being possessed, but that can't be right! There hasn't been a proven case of possession in . . ." Theo stopped, his eyes widening.
"Quirrell," Harry said weakly. "Quirrell was possessed by Voldemort. Why not Blaise? She's only twelve, and a lot less equipped at dealing with the Dark Arts than a fully-grown man."
"When did she start acting weird?"
Harry thought for a moment, then a flash of understanding crossed his mind. "After the Christmas feast . . . we were roaming around the castle, and the third floor corridor was flooded. Blaise went to see what was going on and she said somebody threw a book at Moaning Myrtle; she said it was nothing important, that she left it there. . . ."
"That's it right there," Theo murmured, nodding to himself. "Never trust anything when you can't see its—"
He stopped abruptly when he heard a noise from outside in the corridor. It sounded like footsteps, but a quick glance at a wristwatch proved that it was nearly an hour after curfew. Who was walking around at this time of night?
Harry put his finger to his lips in a signal for Theo to be quiet, but there was no reason to. Harry carefully dug into his pockets and produced his Invisibility Cloak before wrapping it around the both of them.
Theo carefully opened the door slightly with a creak, and they squeezed out of the room and into the corridor, where they could see Lucius Malfoy walking away from them, his boots making a steady click-clack on the stone floor. Harry and Theo shared an uneasy glance before wordlessly deciding to follow him.
Malfoy Sr. led them past the Great Hall and to the front entrance before exiting the castle and walking into the dark night. Harry and Theo could barely make out his silhouette, but decided to follow the thump-thump his boots were now making on the grass.
Malfoy passed the lake without hesitation and then headed toward the Forbidden Forest. Before he could fully make it there, he took a right turn and headed to Hagrid's hut instead. Following his steady stride, Harry and Theo passed the pumpkin patch and Theo leaned down to whisper something in Harry's ear.
"It seems that Hagrid's roosters really were murdered," he said, gesturing to the chicken pen, which was void of any sort of wildlife. The light-colored wood that made the fence was colored with something Harry could tell would normally be dark red—blood.
By this time Lucius was nearly at the door of the hut, and Harry and Theo hurried to catch up with him without making too much noise.
The door was slightly open, and the two invisible boys could hear snippets of a conversation.
"I'm under a lot of pressure . . . doing something . . . wouldn't be . . . duty . . ."
"Not Azkaban?" they heard a terrified Hagrid croak.
The conversation was put to a halt when Malfoy Sr. rapped on the door and swept in before Dumbledore could fully open the door. Harry and Theo scuttled in behind him.
"Already here, Fudge," Lucius said with a cold and satisfied smile as Fang started to growl. "Good, good . . ."
The strange voice they had heard outside turned out to be a man with rumpled gray hair and an anxious expression, and he seemed to be wearing a pinstriped suit with a scarlet tie, black cloak, and lime green bowler hat.
"That's Cornelius Fudge," Theo muttered. "Minister of Magic."
"What're ye doin' here?" Hagrid practically bellowed. "Get outta my house!"
"Believe me, my dear man, I take no pleasure at all in being inside your . . . house." Malfoy looked around the one-room cabin with a sneer. "I merely called up at the school and was informed that the headmaster was here."
"And what exactly did you want to speak with me about, Lucius?" Dumbledore spoke politely, but the usual twinkle had turned into a fire in his eyes.
"Dreadful thing, Dumbledore," Malfoy said lazily while taking a parchment out of his robes, "but the governors feel that it is time for you to step aside. This is an Order of Suspension—you'll find all twelve signatures on it. We feel that you are losing your touch, what with all these attacks at the school. At this rate, there'll be no Muggleborns left, and we all know what an awful loss that would be to the school."
"See here, Lucius," Fudge started, clearly alarmed. "Dumbledore suspended is the last thing we want just now—"
"The appointment or suspension of the headmaster is a matter to be dealt with by the governors. And as Dumbledore has as of yet failed to stop these attacks—"
"If Dumbledore can't stop them—" (Fudge stopped here to wipe the sweat from his upper lip off with a handkerchief.) "—then who can?"
Mr. Malfoy gave the Minister a nasty smile. "That remains to be seen, but as the twelve of us have voted—"
Hagrid leapt to his feet and roared, "An' how many did yeh have ter threaten an' blackmail before they agreed, eh, Malfoy?"
"Dear, dear, you know, that temper of yours will lead you into trouble one of these days. I would advise you not to shout at the Azkaban guards like that. They wouldn't like it at all. . . ."
"Yeh can' take Dumbledore!" yelled Hagrid. "Take him away an' the Muggleborns won' stand a chance! There'll be killin' next!"
"Calm yourself, Hagrid," Dumbledore interrupted sharply before turning to Malfoy. "If the governors want my removal, Lucius, I shall of course step aside—"
Fudge looked stricken, and Hagrid practically growled.
"However," Dumbledore said, speaking very slowly and clearly, "you will find that I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me. You will also find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it."
For a second, Harry was almost sure Dumbledore's eyes flickered over to where he and Theo were standing, slightly away from the grouping. He glared back.
"Admirable sentiments, Albus, and we shall all miss your . . . highly individual . . . way of running things and only hope that your successor will manage to prevent any such killings."
He strode to the door and turned slightly before giving them a bow and leaving. Fudge twirled his bowler hat and waited for Hagrid to go before him, but Hagrid stood his ground and said quite clearly, "If anyone wanted ter find anything, all they'd have ter do would be ter follow the spiders. That'd lead 'em right! That's all I'm sayin'."
"Alright, I'm comin'," said Hagrid, pulling on his moleskin overcoat. As he was about to follow Fudge through the door, he sent a glance to Dumbledore and said, "An' someone'll need ter feed Fang while I'm away."
oOoOo
With Dumbledore gone, fear spread as it as never before and there was barely a face to be seen in the school that didn't look worried and tense. Any laughter that rang through the halls sounded shrill and unnatural—forced.
Harry kept contemplating Hagrid's words—follow the spiders. It was a clue of some sort, he knew it, but the only problem was that they were shepherded to every class, and there didn't seem to be a single spider left in the castle. It was quite irksome.
Personally, Harry had never had that much of a problem with spiders. Part of it may have been that he had spent a few years of his life living in a cupboard with only the spiders that contaminated it as company. Blaise, he knew, wasn't very fond of them, but wouldn't hesitate to turn her nose up and squash one. He didn't know what Theo thought of them, but the boy had better be damned tolerable of them, because Harry had a plan and he needed someone else to go with him.
oOoOo
"You can't be—! Wait, that's it. You're joking with me, aren't you?"
"No, I'm not," Harry said seriously.
"You actually wish for me to accompany you into a forest filled with all sorts of Dark Creatures—just so we can follow the spiders."
"Yes."
"You have no sense of self-preservation, do you, Potter?" Theo asked cynically.
"Yes, I do, as a matter of fact."
"Not much," muttered Theo under his breath.
"Anyway," Harry said, ignoring Theo, "I've got my Invisibility Cloak, and we can take brooms just in case. We'll be perfectly fine." Harry sent Theo a glare for extra measure. "We do it tonight."
Harry went up to bed and Theo stared at the wilting fire in the Slytherin common room.
"You're giving me gray hairs before my time, Potter," he whispered before following Harry.
oOoOo
Before he knew it, Harry was shaking him awake and gesturing for him to be quiet. Theo groaned (silently) and put on some jeans and a sweatshirt similar to what Harry was wearing before consenting to get under the Invisibility Cloak and out of the dorms. Harry shuffled him out of the common room and the stone door shimmered and disappeared to let them through.
The walk out of the castle was a quiet one, if not stressful. Harry and Theo had to stand close together so they'd both fit under the Cloak, and they kept bumping into each other. The process of step-shuffle-bump-"Ow!" was a tiring one, especially at midnight.
There was one close call when Snape swept by, muttering to himself about red-headed monstrosities, but he didn't seem to notice the duo's labored breathing. They finally found the front doors, opened them a crack, squeezed out, and set off in the general direction of the greenhouses.
Harry left the Invisibility Cloak inside Greenhouse One, as he wouldn't need it in the pitch-black forest (and Greenhouse One had the least dangerous plants in it). Grabbing his own Nimbus Two Thousand and Two and Blaise's broom from where they were artfully hidden in a bush, Harry tossed Blaise's to Theo.
The two quickly walked to the edge of the forest and peered inside. Not seeing any black blobby shapes, Harry took out his wand and whispered, "Lumos!" Theo quickly copied him.
"Do you see anything?" Theo asked hesitantly as they searched along the ground for a trail of spiders.
"No. . . . Wait, there's one!" And there was: A trial of small spiders scuttling along the cluttered ground of the forest. "Follow me!"
For nearly twenty minutes they followed the steady trickle of spiders going along a path in the forest with two spheres of light leading their path. When the trees became thick and the stars couldn't be seen in the cloudless night sky, the string of spiders left the path in favor of going towards the right.
"What do you think?" Harry whispered to Theo.
"We've come this far, and there is no way in hell I'm trying to find my way back now."
With a unanimous vote, they veered from the path and followed the spiders into the dense thicket of trees. They couldn't move as quickly now, as there were branches and stumps blocking their way, and Harry had to lean down more than once to make out the trail the spiders were creating.
They kept at it for what must have been only half an hour, but it felt like days. Finally Harry and Theo noticed the ground seemed to be sloping downward, yet the trees were as thick as ever.
Then it happened.
Harry didn't even have time to panic. There was a loud clicking noise before something long and hairy seized him around the middle and lifted him from the ground. Struggling and terrified, he heard more clicking before Theo yelped as he was lifted from the ground as well.
Harry couldn't have yelled even if he had wanted to. The thing that appeared to be holding him was at least eight feet tall and nearly that wide, with six immensely long, hairy legs. The pincers that were holding him up were slightly sticky, and he didn't even want to turn back and see the creature's eyes. Speaking of your normal, everyday, giant spider, another one was holding Theo, whose eyes were wide and glaring at him accusingly. Harry just grinned nervously back.
They were moving into the very heart of the forest, and Harry couldn't even comprehend how long he was stuck in the creature's clutches. He only really got his perception of time back when he realized that the darkness of night had lifted enough for him to see the leaf-strewn ground—which was swarming with spiders of all sizes. Craning his head at an awkward angle, he realized that they were at the edge of a vast hollow that had been cleared of trees, making the stars shine brightly on a scene that had just made it into first place on his Most Horrific Experiences list.
Harry gulped. Sure, he wasn't creeped out by spiders; normal spiders, that is. These spiders were massive, eight-eyed, eight-legged, black, hairy, and did he mention huge? The ginormous specimen carrying Harry made its way down the steep slope toward a misty, domed web in the very center of the hollow, while its fellows closed in all around it, clicking their pincers excitedly at the sight of its load.
Harry fell to the ground on his bum as the spider released him and picked up his broom as it was jostled from his hands. He barely registered Theo landing beside him in the same manner and following his actions; the only difference Harry could note was that Theo had a white-knuckled death-grip on his broom handle.
Harry came to with a jerk when he realized that the spider that had hoisted him here was speaking, except the words were slightly mangled because his pincers clicked with every word.
"Aragog! Aragog!"
And from the middle of the misty, domed web came a spider the size of a small elephant, yet he emerged very, very slowly. There was gray in the black of his body and legs, and each of the eyes on his pincered head was a milky white.
"What is it?" he clicked, sounding annoyed.
"Men," clicked the spider that had caught Theo.
"Is it Hagrid?" Aragog asked, moving closer to the sound, his blind eyes wandering vaguely.
"Strangers."
"Kill them," Aragog said agitatedly. "I was sleeping. . . ."
Harry's mind was racing, trying to form an excuse, something that wouldn't get them killed. His heart seemed to have left his chest in order to pound in his throat instead. "We're friends of Hagrid's!"
For the next minute the only sound heard was the click-click-click of every spider's pincers in the hollow.
Aragog paused and said slowly, "Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before. . . ."
"Hagrid's in trouble," Harry said with a tremble. "That's why we've come."
"In trouble?" the aged spider said with a hint of concern masked beneath all the clicking. "Yet he has sent you? Why?"
"They think—up at the school—that Hagrid's been the one who's setting this monster on the students. They've taken him to Azkaban."
Aragog clicked his pincers furiously, making all the other spiders echo him. Beside Harry, Theo was gagging.
"But that was years ago," said Aragog, clearly annoyed. "Years and years ago. I remember it well. That's why they made him leave the school. They believed that I was the monster that dwells in what they call the Chamber of Secrets. They thought that Hagrid had opened the Chamber and set me free. Why they would think that a clearly young acromantula was the monster of Slytherin, I do not know. It did not make sense, when Slytherin could communicate much more easily with something only he could control. . . ."
"The monster is a snake, isn't it?" Harry asked, bravely, in his opinion.
Aragog hissed and clicked his pincers. "Not just any old snake, human boy! No normal snake has the power to kill with his gaze! The body of the girl who was killed was discovered in a bathroom; I never saw any part of the castle but the cupboard in which I grew up."
"But then, what sort of snake did kill that girl?" A loud outbreak of clicking and the rustling of many long legs shifting angrily blocked out any other noise. They seemed to be closing in.
"We do not speak of it! The thing that lives in the castle in an ancient creature we spiders fear above all others! I never even told Hagrid the name of that dreaded creature, though he asked me many times.
Harry didn't want to press the species of the dreaded reptile, not with the spiders pressing closer on all sides. Aragog seemed to be tired of talking and was slowly backing into his domed web. His fellow spiders continued closing in.
"We'll just go, then," Harry called desperately to the retreating Aragog.
"Go? I think not. . . ."
"But—but—" Theo stuttered.
"My sons and daughters do not harm Hagrid on my command. But I cannot deny them fresh meat, especially when it wanders so willingly into our midst. Goodbye, friends of Hagrid."
Harry spun around quickly. Merely meters away, towering far above at a height he wouldn't even wish for (as short as he was) was a solid black wall of spiders, clicking angrily (or maybe it was hungrily?).
Harry and Theo both got to their feet and shuffled close together, and that was when Harry remembered the brooms they had brought with them. Sharing a look with Theo and nodding toward his own broom, there was a quick flurry of movement as Harry and Theo straddled their brooms and took off, mere seconds before the spiders reacted.
Harry was trained to be able to fly at sharp angles: for example, straight up. Theo, however, was not, and didn't have time to get high enough before a spider wrapped his pincers around his leg. Harry was surprised that he didn't hear the bone break. Quickly taking out his wand, Harry realized a second too late that it would be next to useless. He didn't know any spells that could counter a giant eight-foot-tall spider.
And then it hit him. He had researched this spell, but had never performed it. Not to mention it was a level-two Dark spell and not to be performed. Oh, well, to hell with that. Taking a deep breath and aiming his wand at the spider's pincers, he took action.
"Discerpo"
The spider shrieked in agony as the pincer that was connected to Theo's leg was severed from his body, falling to the floor of the hollow as blood sputtered from the wound. Theo looked up at Harry gratefully and shot up more quickly than he probably should have before the spiders could realize he was gone. Plus, it wasn't every day your friend severed a spider's pincer for you.
The duo quickly soared over the clearing and spotted Hogwarts in the distance before shooting towards it.
"You know," Theo said loudly as the wind rushed past them. "It would've been much easier to have flown in the first place than having to go through that forest."
"Yeah, it probably would have."
"There's no 'probably' to it, Harry!"
They landed unsteadily near the greenhouse and picked up the Invisibility Cloak from where they had left it.
Compared to the journey through the forest, the walk through the castle to their dormitory was extremely short and neither said a word until they were both in bed and the lights were out.
Harry was becoming drowsy when Theo finally spoke.
"So the snake is somewhere in the castle, we figured that out. But how could something that huge hide in a castle that houses more than five hundred students?"
"I don't know. . . ." Harry thought for a moment before it hit him. "That girl that died—Aragog said she was found in a bathroom. What if she never left? What if she's still there?"
Theo shot up in bed and said in a shocked, chilled whisper, "Moaning Myrtle."
oOoOo
Authoress's Note:
Names Mentioned:
Steve Levi - animeflunky
Kristen Malkin - BitterIcing
Leander Walker - walka88 (anon.)